


MadArcher / Curious Archer One-Shots

by Eddd



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: AU, Curious Archer - Freeform, Cutesy, F/F, Fluff, Listen they're just really cute ok, MadArcher - Freeform, OUAT - Freeform, Once Upon A Time, Support, bits of everything really, oneshots!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:41:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22651177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eddd/pseuds/Eddd
Summary: It's been a minute since I did some writing so I'm diving in with some short one-shot fics from anon and internet prompts! Titles and notes for each will be at the top of each chapter.Might be some AUs, probably some fluff, some angst, some meet-cutes, and who knows what else.Enjoy!
Relationships: Alice | Tilly & Robin | Margot, Alice | Tilly/Robin | Margot
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18





	MadArcher / Curious Archer One-Shots

**Author's Note:**

> Anon tumblr prompt: "Prompt for Curious Archer, if you feel you want to, of course: Margot helps Tilly through a bad day?"
> 
> This one is set somewhere vaguely in between episode 7x17 and 7x18.

Tilly ran frantic fingers through her hair, clutching at the roots and tugging as she scrunched her eyes up so tight she could see stars. She let out a frustrated growl and bypassers on the street looked around, startled, before speeding up on their way to put some distance between themselves and the young woman.

It wasn’t a good day. 

Some of them weren’t. Some of them were very bad. This was a bad one. Whispers and questions and confusing thoughts and sounds and why didn’t they have an marmalade for her sandwich at the Deli and how did she get back here to her troll friend when a moment ago she had been at Detective Rogers’ apartment? Had she walked here? Perhaps she’d forgotten. Perhaps she’d floated.

She tried to stuff the thoughts and memories back into their spaces on the shelves of her mental library but it’s like they were suddenly the wrong shape. It’s like they had inflated, refusing to fit and _make sense_ and had grown buoyant and were trying to float away. The tighter she closed her eyes the more she felt like she herself was starting to float away. Voices and memories that didn’t belong and _weren’t familiar_ and why wouldn’t it just _stop_?

Usually when days were bad like this, Tilly would reach out to her lifelines to anchor her down - the friendly faces she knew around Hyperion Heights, the marmalade sandwich she ordered every day, her friend the troll statue under the bridge. 

But she’d already learned this week that the friendly faces didn’t know her back. The aforementioned marmalade had run out. She had run - _ah yes,_ now she remembered, possibly - to the troll statue to try and feel something to ground her but by the time she arrived her head was so full of fog and noise it was all she could do to just stand upright… or perhaps keep her feet on the ground.

Eyes jammed shut, fingers clawing at her scalp, she barely noticed that she was stumbling unevenly on the pavement. She didn’t notice that she had stepped backwards into the road. 

A car horn and the screech of sliding tyres cut through the noise and her eyes opened, hands dropping from her head as the vehicle approached.

A hand grasped her arm, yanking her back onto the pavement as the car lurched past, mid-way through its attempted swerve, the driver righting the trajectory and hooting the horn angrily a few more times for good measure.

“Twice in one week, huh?” came a familiar voice.

Tilly looked round, struck with deja vu as she found herself face-to-face once again with Margot - the girl who had pulled her from the path of an oncoming car in this same spot just a few days before. The girl who she met properly on the bench by the beignet truck and offered the beignet she’d made herself, shaped like a heart. Tilly didn’t really notice how long she simply stared at her. Long enough for Margot to chuckle a little awkwardly and teeter a step back, letting go of Tilly’s arm and pushing her wire-framed glasses further up the bridge of her nose. Tilly missed the contact as soon as it was broken and it seemed to snap her to attention a little.

“Sorry, have I caught you at a bad time?” Margot ventured nervously.

“Yes,” Tilly replied simply, but with a gentle smile gracing her lips. “Yes, you definitely caught me. I thought I was about to float away.”

“Float is one word for it,” Margot murmured concernedly, glancing at the car disappearing around the corner. 

Tilly felt the whispers and the fog starting to creep back in. She frowned and closed her eyes again. “I’m sorry. It’s... it’s just so noisy I can barely even _think_ -”

“Are you ok Tilly?” 

“Buzzing and whispering and it’s like it’s pulling my head in ten different directions,” Tilly rambled, almost to herself, her hands going to her head once again, this time fingers pressing to her temples. “Just tugging me away and there’s nothing to hold onto.”

“Well… you can hold on to me then.” Margot’s reply was very matter-of-fact and when Tilly opened her eyes the other girl was looking at her with disarmingly bright eyes, both hands offered out in front of her. 

Tilly hesitated for a moment, then tentatively placed her hands in Margot’s. Her skin was soft - a thought that only broke through to the surface due to the sudden and relieving clarity of mind that washed through Tilly’s head. 

This was it. A lifeline, tethering her to the world. 

Tilly laughed, openly, _incredulously_. She couldn’t help but do so. Margot seemed to let out a relieved sigh. “This is helping?”

Tilly nodded energetically. “It is. Thank you.” She let a long and calming breath as the whispers and noise began to subside. She felt her feet on the ground. Solid. Secure. “I felt like a kite in a storm today.”

“Well, consider me your tether,” Margot said proudly. “For as long as you need me.”

Tilly absent-mindedly squeezed Margot’s hands fondly at these words, prompting a grin - and possibly a small blush - on her tether’s face. 

“You sure about that?” Tilly said, taking another deep breath and feeling a touch bold as she became more stable with each passing moment. “I think it might be a little while yet before this particular storm passes.”

“Then I’d better keep holding on,” Margot replied smoothly, unphased. 

The pair stood, eyes locked on each other for a moment longer. Margot broke first, dipping her head and smiling again, returning Tilly’s warm hand-squeeze. It felt electric.

“So I don’t know about you, but my favourite thing to do when it’s stormy is go grab a hot chocolate,” Margot said knowingly. “Whaddya say?”

Tilly grinned and nodded. “I say that sounds even better than marmalade.”


End file.
